There is a long running debate in F1 about the impact that drivers and cars have on winning. If drivers have their way, the wins are because of them and the losses are the car’s fault. But over the years, lots and lots of people have studied this issue, and it seems like winning is about 80% car and 20% everything else (driver, team, pit crew, team principal). There is some evidence that this percentage overinflates the role of the car. But the budget expenditures of F1 teams tell the tale because, of course, money talks. According to this breakdown, the engine alone represents 45-50% of a team’s entire budget.

If you need more proof that it is more car than driver, Adrian Newey’s recent signing with Aston Martin can help put this in perspective. Only the two most famous (and thus marketable) drivers in F1 make substantially more (Max and Lewis at $55 million), with the handsome and winning Monaghast Charles LeClerc making roughly the same ($34 to $30 million). Newey designs cars. Thoses cares wins races. That is why he is making a shit ton of money. Because cars, not drivers, win races. Of course their are exceptions (Michael Schumacher winning in the 1994 Benetton B194) or places where a driver breaks the sport with a stunning, once-in-a-lifetime performance (“Lewis its Hammer Time”), but most of the time the best car wins, and who is sitting in the tub, is not all that important.

This debate reminded me of the debate over steel. What matters? Of course there is a balance of attributes—edge retention, toughness, corrosion resistance, sharpenability—but all edged tools have three ways to change these attributes—grind (geometry), steel composition (chemistry), and heat treat (physics). So what percentage impact do each of these three things have on achieving the ultimate balance of attributes?

Grind

For me, the #1 thing by far, is grind. A thin grind with cheap steel will perform better than a thick grind with superior steel. Just look at how effective Victorinox blades are. No one would consider 1.4116 a high tech steel, but if you grind it thin, it will work. After all, the best blades in the world were made out of bronze for about 1,300 years (2,000 BC to 700 BC was the so-called Bronze Age for this very reason). And bronze, while better than other metals available at the time, has edge retention qualities that resemble butter compared to what we have today. A slim SAK blade, like on the Victorinox Compact, will get a lot of EDC work accomplished. Sure it won’t batch stamp out steel blanks like some of the high speed steels will, but I can’t remember the last time I did that with a pocket knife.

There is a lot of anecdotal evidence for this. Dr. Frunkey pointed out when I asked him that grind is always the most important because pretty much everyone has a kitchen knife that still slices even though it has not been sharpened in like 20 years. The logic of this argument is hard to escape. Razor blade knives are another data point—the steel and heat treat are almost always mystery meat stuff, but because the edge is super thing and the blade stock is also quite thin, it is difficult to get poor cutting performance.

Steel Composition

Steel composition is almost certainly more important for marketing purposes than it is for knife performance. After all, many companies make tons of money releasing the same knife over and over again with slightly different steels. But in terms of performance, I just don’t think it matters all that much. A thin knife with crappy steel will beat a thick knife with Magnacut. This is why I am always baffled by these thick “tactical” knives have huge blades with high end steel. The grind negates the steel and yet you pay a premium for it.

There is a way in which steel composition does matter though. Suppose you are buying a knife that is offered in multiple steels—same grind, same blade shape, just multiple steels. In that case, steel composition matters. But this is not a knife related maxim, it happens all the time in life. When all variables but one are held constant, choose the best in that variable. If all the cars you are looking at have basically the same features and the same price, but one has better gas mileage, you choose based on gas mileage.

Heat Treat

Heat treat is a little different than the other two. Almost all steels have heat treat protocols. They are created by the manufacturer and they are pretty strict. Some older steels like O1 and D2 have heat treat variations, but for the most part they all fall within a range. So long as you are getting the steel from the manufacturer or follow the protocol correctly, heat treat is pretty unimportant. It is designed to maximize the properties of the steel’s composition and so, it is usually the same across the board. M390 is treated a certain way, S45VN, a certain way, and so on. I do think that there are protocols for some steels I prefer—Dozier’s D2 or TM Hunt’s O1, but for the most part this is not a pick and choose kind of thing. So with tthose wo cavaets, manufacturers specs and older steels with variant treatments, I don’t think heat treat matters much at all.

I’d endorse a breakdown like this:

90% grind

9% steel composition

1% heat treat with the heat treat cavaet above

Here is how some notable folks in the IKC do the breakdown (I DM’d them on IG):

Sir Slicealot himself, Cedric and Ada:

“Even 33.3% across all three I would say, but I suppose a clean or nice feeling cut is more 50%, 25%, 25%. But brute edge retention at the very apex is probably an even split.” Pete noted that his slicest knives were a VG-Shun kitchen knife and the very thinly ground Civivi Lumi.

Nicest Knife Reviewer Ever, Eugune Kwon:

“@cedricada probably knows best [editor’s note: see above]. I would guess 70%, 20%, 10%.”

and last, some rando named Larrin Thomas:

“In prior interviews I have said that geometry is more important than steel and heat treatment but I couldn’t give you percentages. The differences between various “good” heat treatments are relatively small but there is a huge difference between a good and bad treatment. Also when we are talking about steels with the same “category” like 20V and M390 the differences are small but obviously 420 stainless vs Maxamet or Rex 121 is a huge difference. With a thick edge none of them cut, but they would also be very difficult to break. Thin edge knife with a cheap steel cuts better and cuts longer than fancy ‘super steel’ with ultra heat treatment if it has a heavy edge.”

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